College Board Under Fire for How It Shares SAT and PSAT Data - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

College Board Under Fire for How It Shares SAT and PSAT Data - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

College Board Under Fire for How It Shares SAT and PSAT Data

Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/

The College Entrance Examination Board (The College Board) is a membership nonprofit with a budget of $900 million. It receives $1 billion in revenue to prepare students for institutions of higher learning. Now, several Illinois lawmakers want the organization to be investigated regarding the alleged sale of students’ data.

The College Board offers the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), which high school students take as part of applying to colleges—although Nonprofit Quarterly has noted the trend of colleges eliminating the SAT requirement. The College Board is a vendor for the Illinois State Board of Education with a $29 million contract to provide the SAT and PSAT. Last year, the state paid them $2 million in fees to College Board to cover the Advanced Placement tests for low-income students.

Nine lawmakers have called on Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate how The College Board disseminates the data it gathers from those who take its tests.

“Although the College Board asks students for their consent (including those under age 18) for disclosing their data to colleges, universities and scholarship providers, they do not inform either students or parents that they will be providing the data to these organizations in exchange for a monetary payment,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Raoul.

Red flags were raised a year ago by the FBI regarding the vulnerability of various education technology, and the threat to students’ privacy across the grades, elementary through secondary and higher learning. Following stories by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, Illinois lawmakers decided to probe the actual data trail as part of a reinforcement of the Student Online Personal Protection Act, which prevents the sale or leasing of student information.

Students sitting for the standardized tests fill out survey questions along with the exams. The data that is sold contains, along with test scores, their interests and extracurricular CONTINUE READING: College Board Under Fire for How It Shares SAT and PSAT Data - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

Diane Tavenner’s new gig and our updated Summit fact sheet as it moves further into Chan-Zuckerberg’s control | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Diane Tavenner’s new gig and our updated Summit fact sheet as it moves further into Chan-Zuckerberg’s control | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

DIANE TAVENNER’S NEW GIG AND OUR UPDATED SUMMIT FACT SHEET AS IT MOVES FURTHER INTO CHAN-ZUCKERBERG’S CONTROL

Diane Tavenner is appearing in NYC  on Nov. 6, to talk about her new book with Angela Duckworth, sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation.  You can RSVP here, “for an intimate conversation between two of America’s leading CEOs, educators, researchers and mothers.” Doors open at 5:30 with a cocktail reception.  According to the invitation, “Each attendee will receive a copy of Prepared and will have the opportunity to have it signed by the author.”

As our updated Summit fact sheet explains, the controversial Summit Learning Platform that has aroused such fierce opposition from parents and students alike at public schools across the nation has now been handed off to  a new organization called T.L.P., run by a board led by Mark Zuckerberg’s wife, Priscilla Chan.

Diane Tavenner continues to run the west coast chain of Summit charter schools, which are involved in ongoing battles with teachers intent on organizing a new union.  At the same time, Taverner is launching a bunch of new initiatives, including promoting her new book that features advice for parents called “Prepared: What Kids Need For a Fulfilled Life.

The book has its own website as well as a glowing blurbs from Todd Rose, director of Harvard Graduate School of Education,  Angela Duckworth, Linda Darling Hammond and Wendy Kopp.   According to Amazon, the book is #30 in Charter Schools, #65 in Education Leadership   and #97 in Business Education.

The website says that the book will be “Your Roadmap to What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life” and will educate parents that their children “deserve opportunities to discover their unique interests and talents” as well as  “pursue the lives they want to live—filled with financial security, CONTINUE READING: Diane Tavenner’s new gig and our updated Summit fact sheet as it moves further into Chan-Zuckerberg’s control | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Rollout and Webinar Series - California School Dashboard and System of Support (CA Dept of Education)

Rollout and Webinar Series - California School Dashboard and System of Support (CA Dept of Education)

2019 CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DASHBOARD: ROLLOUT AND WEBINAR SERIES

This letter is to notify you of the timeline for the release of preview data on the state indicators for the 2019 California School Dashboard (Dashboard) and invite you to participate in the Dashboard webinar series. During the month of November, the California Department of Education (CDE) will release the state indicator data on a rolling basis. The Dashboard public release is scheduled for the week of December 9, 2019.

To support local education agencies (LEAs) with the rollout of the state indicators, the CDE will host a webinar series. Following each webinar, the PowerPoints will be made available on the California School Dashboard and System of Support web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/cm/. Information on accessing the webinars is provided in Attachment 1 along with the dates and times.

The Dashboard preview, along with downloadable data files, will be available on password-protected web sites. The link and single password to access these sites will be sent in a separate email to Dashboard and Secure Accountability Coordinators on November 5, 2019.

Charter Schools and the 2019 Dashboard

Additionally, on October 30, 2019, the CDE will host a webinar regarding the eligibility of charter schools for differentiated assistance under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) which begins with the 2019 Dashboard. Information on accessing this webinar is also provided in Attachment 1. Charter school administrators and charter school authorizers are encouraged to participate in this webinar.

Reminder to Upload the Local Indicators by November 1, 2019

November 1, 2019, is the deadline for LEAs and charter schools to upload their local indicators to the Dashboard. If you have any questions regarding local indicators, please contact the Local Agency Systems Support Office by e-mail at lcff@cde.ca.gov or by phone at 916-323-5233.

If you have questions about the private preview and state indicators, please contact the Academic Accountability Unit by e-mail at aau@cde.ca.gov or by phone at 916-319-0863.

If you have any questions regarding the data elements discussed in the Charter LCFF Eligibility webinar, please contact the Data Visualization and Reporting Office at LCFFESSAData@cde.ca.gov, questions about Charter Schools can be directed to CHARTERS@cde.ca.gov, questions about the System of Support and school/district improvement can be sent to CaSystemofSupport@cde.ca.gov or SISO@CDE.ca.gov and questions about Local Indicators can be directed to LCFF@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

/s/

Cindy Kazanis, Division Director

Analysis, Measurement, and Accountability Reporting

Attachment

cc: LEA Accountability Coordinators

Dashboard Coordinators

Rollout and Webinar Series - California School Dashboard and System of Support (CA Dept of Education)

The unintended consequences of forcing schools to share the same building - The Washington Post

The unintended consequences of forcing schools to share the same building - The Washington Post

The unintended consequences of forcing schools to share the same building

A growing number of schools across the country share buildings and other facilities with other schools, a practice called “co-location.” Although on the surface it seems to make sense to give empty space in a public school building to, say, a charter school without a brick-and-mortar home, there are a variety of issues that make this a far more problematic “solution” than it seems.

In this post, academics Kathy Schultz, Wagma Mommandi and Melia Repko-Erwin of the University of Colorado at Boulder look at those unintended consequences, which affect teachers, students and entire communities.

Schultz is dean of the school of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her new book is “Distrust and Educational Change.” Mommandi and Repko-Erwin are doctoral students at the school.

By Kathy Schultz, Wagma Mommandi and Melia Repko-Erwin

When teachers and students started the 2019-20 school year, most returned to their own school buildings — though many found themselves sharing their facilities with one or more schools. It’s a phenomenon known as “co-location,” and it has become an increasingly common practice, especially in urban school districts. But while the decision to co-locate schools may seem like an obvious solution when one school is in need of space and another has extra, the unintended consequences of this decision can lead to distrust between students, teachers and administrators.

An all-too common scenario occurs when district leaders decide to house two distinct schools within a single building because an existing school has extra space and a newly approved school is in need of space. Some link this seemingly paradoxical issue of having too much and too little space to the proliferation of school choice and changing urban demographics; for instance, in 2000, California voters approved Proposition 39, which stated that available or “unused” space in district school CONTINUE READING: The unintended consequences of forcing schools to share the same building - The Washington Post

Distrust and Educational Change: Overcoming Barriers to Just and Lasting Reform: Katherine Schultz: 9781682532973: Amazon.com: Books - https://www.amazon.com/Distrust-Educational-Change-Overcoming-Barriers/dp/1682532976

Educators Rack Up Wins with Student-Centered Advocacy - NEA Today

Educators Rack Up Wins with Student-Centered Advocacy - NEA Today

Educators Rack Up Wins with Student-Centered Advocacy

Something remarkable is happening. It’s happening right now: more than 35,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 are on strike for the schools Chicago students deserve. Sound familiar? It should.

More and more educators across the country are organizing around issues that extend beyond wages, hours, and professional working conditions and are unifying around a set of demands that benefit students and the wider community. It’s called student-centered bargaining and advocacy.

We’ve seen it in California where member of the United Teachers of Los Angeles included in its bargaining demands a stop on the so-called random wanding of students, which has resulted in racial profiling in schools.

And it happened in Minnesota, where members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators put a proposal on the table to forbid the school district from doing business with banks or other financial institutions that foreclose on the homes of school-age children during a school year, do not pay their employees a $15 an hour minimum wage, and do not offer paid sick leave to their employees.

Efforts like these have increased, and many local unions have launched impressive bargaining campaigns that elevate educators, advocate for students, and advance the common good. Columbus, Ohio, home to the largest school district in the state with over 56,000 students, is one such place.

The Tipping Point

In 2018, after years of neglect by the Columbus City Schools, frustration reached a tipping point. Class sizes were high, art and music were taken out of classrooms CONTINUE READING: Educators Rack Up Wins with Student-Centered Advocacy - NEA Today

How a lawsuit over Detroit schools could have an 'earth-shattering' impact

How a lawsuit over Detroit schools could have an 'earth-shattering' impact

How a lawsuit over Detroit schools could have an 'earth-shattering' impact
"Every school in the country would be affected," one expert said. "There could be a lot of litigation."

After two years of struggling to pass any of his community college classes, Jamarria Hall, 19, knows this for certain: His high school did not prepare him.

The four years he spent at Detroit’s Osborn High School were “a big waste of time,” he said, recalling 11th and 12th grade English classes where students were taught from materials labeled for third or fourth graders, and where long-term substitutes showed movies instead of teaching.

What’s less certain, however, is whether Hall's education in Detroit’s long-troubled school district was so awful, so insufficient, that it violated his constitutional rights.

That’s the question now before a federal appeals court that heard arguments last week in one of two cases that experts say could have sweeping implications for schools across the country.

The cases, now snaking their way through the federal courts, could yield “enormous, almost earth-shattering change in terms of educational funding and educational opportunity,” said Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina whose research has focused on educational rights and constitutional law.

The Detroit case was filed in 2016 on behalf of Hall and other students who attended rodent-infested, crumbling schools that lacked certified teachers and up-to-date textbooks. It argued that appalling conditions, including an eighth grader who taught math to his classmates for a month after his teacher quit, denied students a basic right to literacy.

A similar case was filed on behalf of students in Rhode Island last year, asserting that they were denied a basic civics education.

If either case succeeds and is ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court, Black said, it would establish for the first time that students have a “fundamental right” to an education that meets minimum standards of quality.

“It would lay down a huge marker in terms of how all the states CONTINUE READING: How a lawsuit over Detroit schools could have an 'earth-shattering' impact

Peter Greene: Is Big Brother Watching Your Child? Probably.

Is Big Brother Watching Your Child? Probably.

Is Big Brother Watching Your Child? Probably.

One of the current trends in education is the increasing surveillance of students.

The idea is not new. For several years now companies have sold versions of student monitoring as an educational tool. There were pitches for software that would read facial expressions and eye movement to determine if students were learning. Companies are lining up sales pitches for software that will measure the social and emotional well-being of students. Testing company NWEA is prepared to measure student engagement based on the speed with which they answer multiple choice questions. A Dutch company believes they can accomplish amazing things with audio surveillance of students.

These ed tech wonder-programs overpromise and underdeliver, but while they’ve been struggling to establish their education bona fides, surveillance companies have found another sales pitch for extending their reach into schools.

Florida has been on the cutting edge of this development. After the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School murders, the legislature passed the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas School Public Safety Act. The part of the act that got attention at the time was the raising of the CONTINUE READING: Is Big Brother Watching Your Child? Probably.

Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/

Chance the Rapper advocates for Chicago teachers as host of 'Saturday Night Live' - CNN

Chance the Rapper advocates for Chicago teachers as host of 'Saturday Night Live' - CNN

Chance the Rapper advocates for Chicago teachers as host of 'Saturday Night Live'

Chance the Rapper donned a red Chicago Teachers Union sweatshirt while hosting "Saturday Night Live" in a show of support to the teachers who have been on strike.

Chance the Rapper showed support for the Chicago teachers on strike by wearing a Chicago Teacher's Union Sweatshirt when he hosted "Saturday Night Live."

Chicago teachers have been on strike since October 17 demanding more support staff, higher raises and limits to class size. Chicago Public Schools is the third biggest school district in the country.

"To the teachers in Chicago, I know you guys are on strike right now. I fully support you," Chance said Saturday, adding the joke "I just wish that when I was in school my teachers had gone on a strike."

Chance, who is from Chicago, also rapped about the city's nickname "The Second City" and how he's a fan of all things in second place.

Michelle Gunderson, a public school teacher and trustee for the teacher's union, tweeted during SNL that the bargaining team was working but took a break to watch the rapper.

"Your teachers thank you," Gunderson tweeted.

Michelle Gunderson@MSGunderson

@chancetherapper The @CTULocal1 bargaining team is still working tonight. We did take a break to watch you. Your teachers thank you.

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Several SNL cast members were seen at the end of the show wearing Chicago Teachers Union T-shirts.

This isn't the first time Chance has shown support for Chicago educators. In 2017, he donated $1 million to the city's public schools to support arts and enrichment programming.

CNN's Amanda Watts contributed to this report.

Chance the Rapper advocates for Chicago teachers as host of 'Saturday Night Live' - CNN

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Sometimes second best is better than the first 🎶 #ChanceOnSNL

A post shared by Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) on Oct 26, 2019 at 9:16pm PDT

Teachers Who Promote Creativity See Educational Results

Teachers Who Promote Creativity See Educational Results

Teachers Who Promote Creativity See Educational Results

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Creativity in the classroom goes hand in hand with exceptional student learning, according to a new Gallup study examining U.S. education. Specifically, K-12 teachers who frequently make assignments that require students to think creatively are much more likely than other teachers to observe higher-order cognitive skills in their students. These skills include:

• engaging in problem-solving
• demonstrating critical thinking
• making connections between different subjects
• having deep learning of subject matter
• retaining what they have learned

Classroom creativity also corresponds to more engaged, confident learners. Specifically, teachers who practice creativity in learning are much more likely than their counterparts who do not practice this to say their students often take responsibility for their own learning; feel confident about their ability to master difficult material; are willing to take risks; and display a strong desire to learn more about the subjects taught in school.

These findings are based on a nationally representative online survey of 1,036 K-12 teachers conducted March 27-April 5, 2019, using the Gallup Panel. Additionally, for this study, Gallup conducted online surveys of 2,673 parents of students in grades K-12, as well as 853 students in grades six to 12.

Teachers' use of creativity in learning was determined by the frequency with which they report allowing students to do each of the following: 1) choose what to learn in class; 2) try different ways of doing things, even if they might not work; 3) come up with their own ways to solve a problem; 4) discuss topics with no right or wrong answer; 5) create a project to express what they've learned; 6) work on a multidisciplinary project; 7) work on a project with real-world applications; and 8) publish or share projects with people outside the classroom.

Creativity Plus Transformative Use of Technology May Reap Even Greater Benefits

Gallup's new Creativity in Learning report finds that teachers who combine creativity with assignments that make transformative use of technology see even better student outcomes.

Examples of transformative use of technology include using tablets or computers to create multimedia projects, conduct research, analyze information and create complex projects that cross disciplines.

As the following chart shows, 85% of teachers who focus on creativity in learning and use technology in transformative ways say they often see their students engaging in problem solving. This drops to 75% among teachers who foster classroom creativity but use technology in more substitutional ways (replacing paper and pencil with tablets or computers to do the same tasks) and to 50% among teachers who maximize neither creativity nor transformative technology in the classroom.

Similar gaps by teaching method are seen in teachers' ratings of their students for CONTINUE READING: Teachers Who Promote Creativity See Educational Results

Many parents are confused about how public education now works in New Orleans, report says | Education | nola.com

Many parents are confused about how public education now works in New Orleans, report says | Education | nola.com

Many parents are confused about how public education now works in New Orleans, report says

The last decade has produced tectonic shifts to education in New Orleans, the first major city in the U.S. without any traditional public schools run by a central office. But even though decentralization of the local school system has been years in the making, many parents still don't understand how it all works.

That's according to "What Do Parents Think?," a report from the Cowen Institute, an education research and innovation center based at Tulane University.

The report also found that nearly half of public school parents surveyed think the local school system has neither improved nor gotten worse since charter schools came on the scene.

With the charter movement comes school choice, which means more options for families. But it also means a complex lottery application system, long commutes across town for many students, decentralized services like bus transportation, and frequent leadership turnover as charters are revoked for reasons ranging from poor fiscal management to failing grades from the state.

"I completely understand why parents would be confused," said Vincent Rossmeier, the Cowen Institute's director of policy. 

The institute has conducted similar surveys each year since 2007 to gauge the public's opinion on school governance and performance. While the questions have remained similar, this year's poll was exclusively given to parents and guardians of New Orleans public school students, excluding residents who have no ties to public education, Rossmeier said.

The survey results, released this month, show that parents care deeply about public education. Of the 500 parents surveyed, education outranked crime, infrastructure, the economy and CONTINUE READING: Many parents are confused about how public education now works in New Orleans, report says | Education | nola.com